Friday, October 16, 2009

Seawolves Handle RPI 3-0

Freshaman Alex Gellert experienced both the highs and lows of college hockey this afternoon in his 3rd Division 1 game. Gellert opened UAA's scoring with his 1st period game winner just 2:44 into the game. After a strong rush deep into the RPI zone the puck found it's way back to Kane Lafranchise would fired a heavy shot from the top of the slot, Mickey Spencer picked up the rebound from that shot and fired a wrister, RPI goaltender York made the stop but gave up a fat rebound to the right ... Gellert was in perfect position and just had to pop the puck into the open side. On Alex's 2nd shift of the game he picked up one of the now famous marginal D1 checking from behind penalties and was shown the gate.

It was the only goal UAA needed as RPI wasn't able to get any pucks past Jon Olthuis who was solid in net for the Seawolves.

The Seawolves killed off the 5 minute major without giving up many serious chances and even manufactured a couple of short handed situations that created some danger. UAA dominated some nice portions of the period with good possession in the RPI end. At 14:41 Josh Lunden made it 2-0 off the rebound from another Kane Lafranchise shot. Shots in the period were 14-9 in UAA's favor at the break.

RPI's CJ Lee was tagged with less marginal CFB penalty and shown the gate at 6:37 of the 2nd. UAA gained and held possession in the RPI zone regularly throughout the 2nd period. It wasn't quite a dominating performance overall but did have some dominating possession by the Seawolves.

At 17:31 Kevin Clark's great effort made it 3-0. The Seawolves had the puck deep and were forcing it toward RPI's goal with Clarkie skating left to right across the crease, he picked up the puck and after being held and mauled went down to the right side of the net. The play wasn't over for him as he bounced up to his knees and chunked the puck home. Nick Haddad and Tommy Grant picked up the assists. Shots in the 2nd period were even at 9.

The third period was relatively quiet with the Seawolves performing well but not challenging offensively as hard as they seemed to in the first two periods. They definitely pushed the game forward but didn't generate many chances. RPI outshot the Seawolves in the period 7-4.

Overall Jonny Olthuis played a solid game. Only about a half a dozen shots were real threats and he was up to the task on all of those. Defensively, the team was solid. I saw only one bad blown assignment defensively but RPI muffed that chance; good positional play and a quick glove hand by Jonny O kept them off the board. Only one RPI player (Jerry D'Amigo) ever seemed to generate any dangerous looking plays.

All the forward lines played well for the Seawolves with each of them being able to manufacture chances off the cycling game. The Seawolves transition game looked good but didn't generate any goals. They did generate chances. Finishing those chances looks to be something that needs continuing work. I can't say enough good things about Lee Baldwin. Once again he looked like a veteran and we saw a couple of heavy one timers from him. The Portwood-Parkinson-Crowell line deserves mention for their hard work. A couple of times I was impressed with the hard work that all of them did along the boards.

I think Josh Lunden's maturity will be a real asset in the development of Naslund and Bruijsten. He certainly set a good example tonight especially with his skating and play away from the puck. With Gellert out, Sean Wiles and Mickey Spencer filled in where possible and I thought both had solid outings.

Leinweber and Lafranchise are going to be an ongoing offensive threat as the season progresses. They showed bits of that today for sure. Jared Tuton was solid and steady as usual. I don't like to criticize players here (and this is a small but important observation) ... Luka Vidmar needs to find more focus I think. Too many pucks come off his stick too easily sometimes. He always looks good going forward but a fumbled puck or two by a blueliner can be really costly.

Drew Darwitz had his most solid outing as a freshman. I saw no defensive mistakes (which I'd seen but tried not to focus on in earlier games) today from him and he continued to show promise moving the puck forward. When Backstrom and Hunt come back, Coach Shyiak is going to have some hard choices to make with regard to which blueliners dress.

My player of the game for UAA would be Kevin Clark. He scored the "best" goal but moreso because as usual he was creating a bit havoc in all areas of the game. I know ... not giving the nod to Olthuis for his shutout is questionable on my part. He did have 25 saves. But honestly (and I'd hope Jonny would agree), not many of those were really quality chances. He's worked lots harder in lots of other games over his career.

It was a solid win but not great. RMU will be an interesting test tomorrow night especially depending on their result versus UA_, which starts in about 5 mins. Congrats to the team. The W is the most important stat tonight.

Click here for the boxscore.

15 comments:

akhockeyfanatic said...

Yes, congratulations, Seawolves! Great win. Now go out and get another W tomorrow night!!!

I just left the UA_ vs RMU game and the score was 3-1 UA_ at the end of the 2nd. NOthing too exciting going on there. They certainly did not look like a team that beat the 3rd ranked team last wknd. But we all knew that win was a fluke from the beginning.

Go Seawolves, stay focused and play strong!

Donald Dunlop said...

The UA_ final was 4-2. I thought the 'nooks looked like a bit "frantic" or perhaps a better word is "frenzied" (not necessarily in a good way).

They took like 49 shots ... most of them were worthless ... like just throwing it on net to throw it there and hope your teammates could scramble enough to get to it?

I think a better team would have made them pay.

They're the ScrambleNooks. They look like a soccer team of 11 year olds chasing the ball all over the field.

Anonymous said...

Good job Seawolves. Good job Jonny for the shut-out! If Vidmar is still injured there will be only 5 d-men left for tonite, but the way they are playing it should not be a problem. Lafranchise was a force last night. He did a lot of everything. Lunden also stood out.

Wolfman said...

When I was watching the game, Kurt said that the Carlson would be "sold out" for the nooks game. Then I read the box score and it read that only 2,300 went to the game? Is UA_ losing its fan base?

Anonymous said...

Who will be first to 20 goals,clark, lunden, grant or parkinson.. Answer all of the them, clark will the first, he is on fire.

Anonymous said...

RPI looked terrible last night...They looked like they just got off the plane from Newyork. We wont have any awnsers until the WCHA starts and we are playing teams of that caliber. That being said it will be interesting to see if we can play with some consistancy and take it to Robert Morris. I am still very concerned with the powerplay. I think the line chemistry still needs to adjusted and I would like to see Lienweber up front as he adds some offense and for some reason like thinking back to the Denver upset last year may be a game breaker type clutch forward that is not being maximized on Defense. That is or could be a big factor that really has not be explored for any duration.

Kris said...

Does anyone have, or know of, a video clip of the Clark goal that they are going to put on Youtube?

Anonymous said...

I see our self-obsessed friend Mr. Dunlop has too much time on his hands, judging by his endless rants, type A personality and ADHD issues. Keeping your nose clean lately Donald?

3AN-02-04660SC CARR GOTTSTEIN FOODS vs. Dunlop, Donald Small Claims Prior to Conversion

3AN-95-D734199 State of Alaska vs. Dunlop, Donald Charge Dscr AS28.10.471: S/R/E REGISTRATION

3AN-99-03571SC Financial collection, Agency of anch vs. Dunlop, Donald PFD garnishment

4HE-05T1273799 State of Alaska vs. Dunlop, Donald AS28.22.019: FAIL CARRY PROOF INS

3AN-02A1315857 Municipality of Anchorage vs. Dunlop, Donald M AMC9.16.140(B): EXERCISE CARE/VEHICL

3AN-02A1316894 Municipality of Anchorage vs. Dunlop, Donald M AMC9.16.090(A): UNSAFE LANE CHANGE

3AN-04-16460MO Municipality of Anchorage vs. Dunlop, Donald M AMC9.26.030(C)-Z5: 10-19MPH Spd Limit Viol

3AN-04-25461MO Municipality of Anchorage vs. Dunlop, Donald M AMC9.44.380(C)(3): One Studded Tire/Out Of Season 5-1 Thru 9-15

3AN-98-03031SC AK FINANCIAL SVCS vs. Dunlop, Donald M Non-Trial Judgment Amount Amt:1246.58

3PA-96-T967611 State of Alaska vs. Dunlop, Donald M 13AAC02.275(b): Speeding

Anonymous said...

And you were the teacher's pet, no doubt. What did he do to hurt you? Knock you out of the spelling-bee? I spell tattle-tale you S-M-A-L-L. -30-

Anonymous said...

Anon at 9:22
Exactly who is it that has too much time on his hands?? Wow. Loser.

Anonymous said...

Unreal. Hard to garnish PFD checks when one doesn't apply for them! :rollseyes:

akhockeyfanatic said...

Anon 9:22 am

Wow.....brutal. You've hit an all time low. Ha ....and I see you're brave enough to "man" up and leave your name.

Pfffttt to you. You should be ashamed. Pick on the state of Alaska, pick on UAA, pick on our hockey program, pick on our mascot, pick on 10,000 other things but to attack someone personally in this way is a disgrace.

Donald Dunlop said...

Readers,
I deleted my initial retort to this stalker. I do believe I know who this person is though.

I've fully expected such an effort at some point with all the derision I heap upon our opponents. Especially since I decided to publish here under my full name versus hiding behind the moniker "Drop The Puck".

My original answer contained all the reasons and/or stories behind each of those listed offenses. But upon further consideration I decided there's no reason to defend myself.

This is the world we live in. There are assholes like me bashing hockey opponents on the Internet and deriding their miserable regions ... And then there are creepy fucking stalkers searching government databases in failed attempts to impugn them.

I apologize to you for my horrible transgressions against society. I suck with money and used to drive too fast. Huge shame on me.

I wonder if I'll show up on DG's LetsGoDU "Bad Boys" list? "UAA Blogger's Criminal History Exposed" might be a good post title eh?

To the "anonymous" person @ 9:22:
Yes. I have a pretty good idea of who you are. If we're lucky enough to ever be in the same place again then my "record" is certain to be extended to include an assault charge. I've never been in jail but I have been in a physical altercation or two in my time. Anyway, since so many of my friends have been to the clink, it will perhaps give me some street cred with them to pummel you.

In the case that I'm wrong about you then you have an opportunity here to prevent an innocent person from suffering that eventuality. Come back confirm your identity. If your concern for society is great enough that you felt the need to warn them about me then you should certainly have enough empathy to prevent me from assaulting the wrong person eh?

Otherwise ... fuck off and die in a horrible way. Ok?

mednerro said...

Wow, I came here to check out news from Squarebanks and found this stuff, sort of creepy. Somebody touched a nerve here. Anyways going to the Carlson Center to see how it goes. RPI looked pretty good, don't count this one in the bag just yet. Should be an interesting finish for a wannabe tournament.

Donald Dunlop said...

mednerro:
Yeah it was creepy for me too. LOL. I thought about deleting it of course. But hope that my response will somehow deter any future stalking.

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